Mass Effect: Revelation

Mass Effect: Revelation is a novel by Canadian science fiction writer Drew Karpyshyn. First published in 2007 by Del Rey Books, it is the first novel set in the Mass Effect universe. It is the prequel to the Xbox 360 and PC game Mass Effect, which was developed by BioWare Corp. Karpyshyn is lead writer of the Mass Effect video game.

The book serves to fill in much of the background details of the game, such as locations and the internal politics of the Council's races, as well as characters. A considerable amount of the plot revolves around the galaxy's views on Artificial Intelligence, as this appears to be a major plot point in the game. The book tells of a young Alliance lieutenant David Anderson and his efforts to find a survivor of an attack on a top-secret Alliance base, lieutenant Kahlee Sanders. As the book progresses it is revealed the base was attacked purposely by the Blue Suns mercenary group, who were hired by the leading scientist on the base. A Turian spectre, Saren is assigned to help Anderson and find clues as to where the missing scientist is. Eventually they find the scientist, but Saren escapes with the information the scientist was researching to an ancient alien ship which he plans to use for his own evil deeds as portrayed as the main plot in the game Mass Effect.

Story

The story begins in 2157 with Rear Admiral Jon Grissom, who is on his way to Arcturus aboard the SSV Normandy to congratulate the new graduates of the Alliance's N7 specialist training program. Nine years prior in 2148, scientists discovered a cache of alien technology buried under the surface of Mars. These aliens were known as the Protheans, and it was decided that they had disappeared for unknown reasons 50,000 years ago. Using this technology, humanity discovered faster-than-light travel, or FTL, and expanded throughout the solar system. In 2149, an exploration team near the edge of the solar system discovered that Charon, Pluto's moon, was a mass relay, a dormant piece of ancient Prothean technology covered by sheets of ice. Scientists discovered that the mass relay granted instant travel across thousands of light-years to another mass relay in a different area of the galaxy. Jon Grissom led the team of brave men and women through the mass relay and became a symbol of the Alliance, a global coalition formed after the discovery of the Prothean cache on Mars. Fast forward to 2157, Grissom meets with Second Lieutenant David Edward Anderson, a promising young graduate of the N7 program, and informs him that his true reason for arriving at Arcturus was to find new recruits to battle an unknown alien force that attacked an Alliance post at Shanxi. It was this that started the First Contact War between the Turian Empire and the Alliance. Several battles ensued until the Citadel Council, a multi-species government devoted to preserving galactic peace and stability, intervened and stopped the conflict. Eight years later, humanity was recognized by the Council and granted an embassy.

In 2165, David Anderson answers an S.O.S. while patrolling the Skyllian Verge, an isolated region on the farthest fringes of Alliance space. Inside the facility, Anderson and his crew discover an elevator leading to the lower sections of the facility, which was never taken back up to the surface. In the lower facilities, Anderson and his crew are attacked by several mercenaries, who they manage to defeat. They discover a pile of the dead bodies of scientists, and also find out that there was a traitor on the inside, due to the fact that the mercenaries had the codes to open certain vital security doors during the attack. One remaining mercenary manages to set off a bomb that destroys the entire lower facilities. Anderson and his crew manage to escape.

On Camala, Edan Had'dah, a rich batarian, meets with the Blue Suns, an infamous mercenary group in the Skyllian Verge, who he hired to attack the Sidon base. A krogan Battle Master bounty hunter named Skarr is hired by Edan to assassinate Kahlee in order to cover up his involvement with the attack on the Sidon facility. At this time, Anderson arrives at the Citadel, the center of the Citadel Council, to meet with Ambassador Anita Goyle, the famous elected representative of the Alliance. Ambassador Goyle informs Anderson that the Sidon facility was researching artificial intelligence, technology that was banned by the Council after an incident 300 years ago, where the quarians created an artificial race known as the geth that eventually turned on their creators. Ambassador Goyle reassures Anderson that the studies were being conducted under safe conditions. She sends Anderson to locate Kahlee Sanders, who may have information on who was behind the attack, and who may know the whereabouts of Dr. Shu Qian, the brilliant scientist in charge of the Sidon facility, and who is believed to still be alive.

Anderson is paired up with Saren, who was to evaluate Anderson to see if he could become a Spectre. Anderson finds and kills Skarr in a Had'dah refinery. Meanwhile, Saren kills Dr. Quian and Edan after stealing Dr. Quian's files, and detonates the plant, killing hundreds of innocent civilian workers in the process. He examines the files, and finds out that Dr. Quian was researching a massive Alien ship called Sovereign. He heads to the ship and plans to use it to put the Turians at the head of the galaxy.

Notes

• It is mentioned in the game Mass Effect that Saren told the Council that Anderson ruined his plans at the Had'dah facility, and therefore led to the council rejecting Anderson as the first human Spectre.
• The book explains how Saren found Sovereign, and was enslaved by the Reapers when he went to examine Sovereign. It also explains why he hates humans so much.

External links

• Revelation
• Press Release
• Free Sample Chapter, Prologue
• Free Sample Chapter, Chapter 9